Alexia Wick may seem like your average 15-year-old girl. However, she is far from it. In fact, this young girl is a witch, along with the rest of her family. At this time in her life, she must prepare for the Annual Trials to prove whether or not she is worthy of being an adult witch in their coven.

Along with this mound of pressure and stress, she has fallen for a boy. A boy that not only melts her heart, but who carries a secret that could put her whole coven at risk.

This first installment of the Trifecta series is a fairly pleasant read with its intriguing premise. The Annual Trials was probably my favorite scene. It was exciting, captivating, and left me wanting more. It actually felt somewhat similar to a quick version of The Hunger Games. It wasn’t necessarily that one boy and girl would survive, but there was an arena and there were tasks that needed to be completed in order to ‘win’. There wasn’t really a moment where I felt bored throughout the read, and I generally liked most of the characters.

Though I felt there could have been more character development, I really liked the sweet relationship Alexia had with her younger sister, Sam, and older brother, Ryan. They may have their moments, but it’s clear that the three are extremely close and would do anything for each other. Their closeness in age probably helps with their strong sibling bond.

There were parts where I felt improvement could be made. For instance, when Kaleb, the love interest, entered the scene and revealed a big secret, I felt it was rushed. Alexia, then proceeded to accept this big secret and reveal her own. I’m not sure if it’s because the characters are so young, but you would think that it would take a lot more than one date to reveal something so major in your life.

Each coven member that is ready/called upon to participate in the Annual Trails have individual training sessions. Along with this, there are group training sessions, as well. These weekly group sessions were held after school at the teenagers’ high school, where typical humans also attended. What confused me was not only why would witches attend an average high school, but why would they hold their weekly training sessions there? While they practiced their spells, anyone could have walked in. This may seem like a small aspect to point out, but it has been mentioned that the witches are concerned about discretion. If that’s the case a public school is probably not the right place to hold these training sessions. Therefore, that makes these scenes contradictory to everything the witches have done to try to keep their secret.

Lastly, I am confused as to why the series is called the Trifecta series. Maybe I missed it along the way, but I didn’t see an explanation for the unique name for this series. Perhaps it will be revealed in the next book.

Though there were not too many unique elements in this book, I enjoyed Rise as a quick read. With that being said, I probably won’t continue the series.

As a warning: There are some pretty graphic/gory scenes in this read that those who feel uncomfortable with these scenes may want to steer clear.

Yes, I would. To those who enjoy quick YA stories about witches and who don’t mind a bit of gore in their reads.

I received this eBook fromOnlineBookClubin exchange for an honest review.